The Windows 2000 CD-ROMs: What You Get

As an eager world awaits, Microsoft's partners are busy burning the
CD-ROMs you'll receive in your boxed copies of Windows 2000, which are
due in retail stores by February 17th. Wondering what you'll get? Well,
wonder no more. Here's a first look at the contents of the Windows 2000
CD-ROMs!

All of the CD-ROMs (with the exception of the Resource Kit CDs) are
bootable, meaning that you can boot a PC with them as long as your system
supports that feature (and all modern PCs do). And all of the CD-ROMs
will auto-play when placed in the drive tray of a running Windows system.
This is probably obvious, but Windows 2000 ships only on CD-ROM: There
are no floppy or DVD versions. For a complete look at all of the possible
ways you can get Windows 2000 on CD-ROM, see my showcase, "
Upgrading
to Windows 2000: What upgrades what." This look at the CD-ROMs
applies to at least the "retail," "OEM," and
"evaluation" versions of Windows 2000.

The Windows 2000 Professional
CD-ROM includes the following directories and files in its root:

Contains a variety of files and
sub-directories containing the "Discover Windows 2000" tour.
Execute DEFAULT.HTM to view the tour from Explorer.

\I386

Contains a variety of files and
sub-directories that make up the Windows 2000 Professional
installation set. Execute WINNT.EXE from DOS or a Windows 9x boot-disk
to start Windows 2000 Setup. Or, execute WINNT32.EXE or WINNT32.MSI to
execute Windows 2000 Setup from Windows 9x, NT, or Windows 2000.

\SETUPTXT

PRO1.TXT and PRO2.TXT make up the
Windows 2000 Professional-specific release note setup documentation.
This was split into two files so that it could be read by the version
of Notepad that ships with Windows 9x.

\SUPPORT

\TOOLS - Contains the
Windows 2000 Support Tools, a subset of the full Windows 2000 Resource
Kit. Execute \SUPPORT\TOOLS\SETUP.EXE to install the Support Tools.

APCOMPAT.EXE - The Applicaton
Compatibility program, which can help fool applications into thinking
that they are installing or running on Windows NT 4 SP3, NT 4 SP4, NT
4 SP5, Windows 98, or Windows 95.

HCL.TXT - The Windows 2000 Hardware
Compatibility List (HCL) as of December 7, 1999. A much newer version
exists on the Microsoft Web site.

\VALUEADD

\3RDPARTY - A variety of unsupported
third-party applications.

\MSFT -A variety of unsupported
Microsoft applications.

BANNER.GIF - An image file used by
VALUEADD.HTM.

VALUEADD.HTM - An HTML document that
discusses the contents of the Value Added directory (\VALUEADD).

\VALUEADD\3RDPARTY

\CA_ANTIV - Contains Computer Associates International's InoculateIT AntiVirus AVBoot V1.1,
a program that will check for viruses when booted on a floppy disk.

\MGMT\WBEMODBC - Contains the Windows
Management Instrumentation (WMI/WBEM) ODBC adapter, which provides a
standard API that allows ODBC-based applications to read the data in
the WMI Common Information Management (CIM) repository as if it were a
relational database.

Contains a variety of files and
sub-directories that make up the Windows 2000 Server installation set. Execute WINNT.EXE from DOS or a Windows 9x boot-disk
to start Windows 2000 Setup. Or, execute WINNT32.EXE or WINNT32.MSI to
start Windows 2000 Setup from Windows 9x, NT, or Windows 2000.

\PRINTERS

\FIXPRNSV
- Contains the Windows 2000 Printer Driver Fixer, which will fix
incompatible print drivers left over during an upgrade.

\NT4 - Contains Windows NT 4.0 upgrade
print drivers.

\WIN9x - Contains Windows 9x upgrade
print drivers.

\SETUPTXT

SRV1.TXT, SRV2.TXT and SRV3.TXT make up the
Windows 2000 Server-specific release notes for setup.
This was split into three files so that it could be read by the version
of Notepad that ships with Windows 9x.

\SUPPORT

\TOOLS - Contains the
Windows 2000 Support Tools, a subset of the full Windows 2000 Resource
Kit. Execute \SUPPORT\TOOLS\SETUP.EXE to install the Support Tools.

APCOMPAT.EXE - The Applicaton
Compatibility program, which can help fool applications into thinking
that they are installing or running on Windows NT 4 SP3, NT 4 SP4, NT
4 SP5, Windows 98, or Windows 95.

BUILDCHK.EXE and CHKBUILD.BAT, two
command line applications that verify the Windows build number.

HCL.TXT - The Windows 2000 Hardware
Compatibility List (HCL) as of December 7, 1999. A much newer version
exists on the Microsoft Web site.

\VALUEADD

\3RDPARTY - A variety of unsupported
third-party applications.

\MSFT -A variety of unsupported
Microsoft applications.

BANNER.GIF - An image file used by
VALUEADD.HTM.

VALUEADD.HTM - An HTML document that
discusses the contents of the Value Added directory (\VALUEADD).

\VALUEADD\3RDPARTY

\CA_ANTIV - Contains Computer Associates International's InoculateIT AntiVirus AVBoot V1.1,
a program that will check for viruses when booted on a floppy disk.

\MGMT\WBEMODBC - Contains the Windows
Management Instrumentation (WMI/WBEM) ODBC adapter, which provides a
standard API that allows ODBC-based applications to read the data in
the WMI Common Information Management (CIM) repository as if it were a
relational database.

Contains a variety of files and
sub-directories that make up the Windows 2000 Server installation set. Execute WINNT.EXE from DOS or a Windows 9x boot-disk
to start Windows 2000 Setup. Or, execute WINNT32.EXE or WINNT32.MSI to
start Windows 2000 Setup from Windows 9x, NT, or Windows 2000.

\PRINTERS

\FIXPRNSV
- Contains the Windows 2000 Printer Driver Fixer, which will fix
incompatible print drivers left over during an upgrade.

\NT4 - Contains Windows NT 4.0 upgrade
print drivers.

\WIN9x - Contains Windows 9x upgrade
print drivers.

\SETUPTXT

ADVSRV1.TXT, ADVSRV2.TXT and ADVSRV3.TXT make up the
Windows 2000 Advanced Server-specific release notes for setup.
This was split into three files so that it could be read by the version
of Notepad that ships with Windows 9x.

\SUPPORT

\TOOLS - Contains the
Windows 2000 Support Tools, a subset of the full Windows 2000 Resource
Kit. Execute \SUPPORT\TOOLS\SETUP.EXE to install the Support Tools.

APCOMPAT.EXE - The Applicaton
Compatibility program, which can help fool applications into thinking
that they are installing or running on Windows NT 4 SP3, NT 4 SP4, NT
4 SP5, Windows 98, or Windows 95.

BUILDCHK.EXE and CHKBUILD.BAT, two
command line applications that verify the Windows build number.

HCL.TXT - The Windows 2000 Hardware
Compatibility List (HCL) as of December 7, 1999. A much newer version
exists on the Microsoft Web site.

\VALUEADD

\3RDPARTY - A variety of unsupported
third-party applications.

\MSFT -A variety of unsupported
Microsoft applications.

BANNER.GIF - An image file used by
VALUEADD.HTM.

VALUEADD.HTM - An HTML document that
discusses the contents of the Value Added directory (\VALUEADD).

\VALUEADD\3RDPARTY

\CA_ANTIV - Contains Computer Associates International's InoculateIT AntiVirus AVBoot V1.1,
a program that will check for viruses when booted on a floppy disk.

\MGMT\WBEMODBC - Contains the Windows
Management Instrumentation (WMI/WBEM) ODBC adapter, which provides a
standard API that allows ODBC-based applications to read the data in
the WMI Common Information Management (CIM) repository as if it were a
relational database.